Books: Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen (1995)

“Two honeymooners wake up early, make love twice, and brace themselves for a spectacle they won't be watching from the sidelines. A seductive con artist stumbles into a scam that promises more cool cash than the lottery. A shotgun-toting mobile home salesman is about to close a deal with disaster. A law school dropout will be chasing one Gaboon viper, a troop of storm-shocked monkeys, and a newfound love life, while tourists by the thousands bail from the Florida Keys. We're now entering the hurricane zone, where hell and hilarity rule.”

As a columnist for the Miami Herald, once again Hiaasen used his knowledge of reporting on the storm to highlight the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in South Florida for this novel. (It’s never named, the storm, by the way, but this book was released in 1995. The the storm happened in 1992, and features an unnamed Republican president that is probably George Bush, Sr.) It seems the aftermath of Hurricane turned out to be fertile ground for real-life corruption and incompetence in the construction industry and local and state governments. Hiaasen wrote several scathing columns about it, where he derided the industry's and government's apologists for describing Andrew as "the storm of the century," which seemed designed to excuse them from their own ineptitude by exaggerating the force of the hurricane.

As for the novel, it’s features (what I’ve learned only in reading handful of his titles) Hiaasen's usual formula: a confused female victim of the greedy jerk rescued by the "crazy" recluse and the caring, law-enforcement hero, along with some preachiness on greed, environmental protection, with a despicable villain (of which they’re many) named Snapper. It’s a good theme, I guess, and it’s clear only liberals will enjoy the tale. I mean none of the characters are without fault; all appear very easily swayed in breaking the law for a large payoff. Yeah, at times it was hard to care for any of them, even if most of them were cartoonish in nature. It also features the third appearance of Skink, AKA, former Governor Clinton Tyree, and Jim Tile, who both previously appeared in Double Whammy and Native Tongue.

Still, despite being a bit overlong, Hiaasen is a very clever writer with a twisted and dark sense of humor. In Stormy Weather, it almost works, because as you read, you take in the satire and how all the plot threads come somewhat together, but the author had an ax to grind and he takes no prisoners when pointing out corruption that seems live within the mud of Florida.  

Books: Marylebone Drop (Slough House #5.5) By Mick Herron (2018)

“Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows he's witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly, he sets in train events which will alter lives. Bachelor himself, a hair's breadth away from sleeping in his car, is clawing his way back to stability; Hannah Weiss, the double agent whose recruitment was his only success, is starting to enjoy the secrets and lies her role demands; and Lech Wicinski, an Intelligence Service analyst, finds that a simple favor for an old acquaintance might derail his career. Meanwhile, Lady Di Taverner is trying to keep the Service on an even keel, and if that means throwing the odd crewmember overboard, well: collateral damage is her specialty.”

The Marylebone Drop is the second novella associated with Mick Herron’s Slough House series (making this short tale #5.5) that also brings back John Bachelor, a man in his late fifties who is aging fast. Once a good spy, but his current job is acting as a third-tier "milkman" for MI-5, which just means he monitors retired assets.

 

The advantage of these novellas is it gives Herron a chance to explore some different areas of the Slough House universe. This is where we meet Alec Wicinski, an smart analyst who unfortunately, and against his better judgment, tries to help Bachelor out – which goes sideways pretty quickly. So no good deed goes unpunished, and Lady Di, the master manipulator, knows where to put him.

 

Like the previous novella, this one (and another follow after it) is not a necessary tale to read to keep up with the main series, but for some completist, this is just a fun side adventure. Herron’s humor and his skewed look at London, office politics, and old spooks who come in from the cold, remain the best aspect of this series. I suspect that German triple agent is an arc that the author is slowly dealing with, and there is another novella after book six, Joe Country, so I’m curious if that will play out there, or be folded into the main series.